Advise on this Yew Yamadori

[Nishant]

Hello Friends, I am new to this fascinating world of Bonsai. I am moving from having grown flowers to Bonsai. I collected this Yew tree from a felling site two weeks back. It was uprooted at least a week before I picked and was lying to be skipped. I was told on tree identification site that it is a Yew. I brought this truck and have put soil around the root ball in the hope that the tree will re-sprout. There are very few leaves on it and have been green as in the picture and no sign of their collapsing, since I picked them two weeks back.

What are chances that the tree will re-sprout. Any further suggestions please. Will greatly appreciate.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Nishant]

Nothing more at this site. I had expected some informational replies.

 

[0soyoung]

I'd say the tree's response will be pretty much like the response you've gotten.

 

[BrianBay9]

I think perhaps people don't want to be too discouraging. While you might get lucky, a yew probably won't live through this treatment. If it does, it doesn't look like great material to me. You probably don't really want a tree with trunks that look like straight cylinders. I realize this is a foundling so you didn't have a choice, but you should be looking for movement in the lower trunk, and some taper. Start with a small elm or juniper. They won't cost you much and you can get some experience with them.

 

[Nishant]

Hello Brian, Many Thanks for your response.

My idea is that if the trunk re-sprouts, cut down top half of the trunks. After that hollow out the trunks to give it a taper. Carving is what I actually am after and so brought this stuff. But all this will make possible only if the trunk re-sprouts and sends even a few stems. I read on internet that Yew can re-sprout.

Its going to be three weeks today since I brought this and the leaves are still green and shiny. Is that any promising news? Or its just that such big trunk will always have enough sap to feed a few small leaves for quite some time. That's my concern on which I want people's opinion. I am hoping that new roots are forming at the moment and new stems would come up in next Spring.

What I am would also like to ask on this forum is any care instruction to improve the chances of plant re-sprouting, given winter is not far.

Looking forward to some replies.

 

[ajm55555]

If it has enough feeding roots and your winter is not too close, it might re-sprout and survive. But in that case, if you plan to cut it much shorter, why not cut it now? At least it won't re-sprout above the future cut point with the risk of having to start all over again.

 

[Nishant]

Thanks ajm55555, I did not cut it now because I thought to let the tree benefit from all the sap it has. So thought of not cutting now. What say? There are quite a few buds near the base as well. It can be seen in the first picture.

Any advise fore the winter. It snows here in London. Should I protect the root-ball with plastic cover. Its not in the ground. It just placed on the ground. I put compost around it.

 

[ajm55555]

This is basically a big stump with no foliage. The most important parts of a tree are the feeder roots and the foliage.
I don't think having a long trunk like this helps in any way, but I might be wrong.
Some trees easily sprout suckers from lower part of the trunk and the base. For those, cutting short is no problem. I don't think Yews are among those though.

 

[Nishant]

So if the leaves whatever few are still there and green, does it not mean that some feeder roots are alive?

 

[ajm55555]

That's a good sign but it's no guarantee it will make it. They could stay green for a while, even a long time and then die off. If you found the tree with some soil around the base there might be enough small roots to keep it alive. In the case you put all the soil around it, then you would have seen the status of the root ball...

 

[Nishant]

Yes. there was soil around the roots when I brought it. It was dry though. The root ball is really big say 18 inches diameter. It had soil around it.

 

[berobinson82]

I used to collect everything I could for bonsai material. Someone once asked me, "what did you see in that material that made you think it would make a nice bonsai?" I'd like to pose the same question to you. Maybe that perspective will help you, like it did me, reconsider what materials you decide to care for in the future. I love yew, btw.

Cheers,

B

 

[Nishant]

I picked this because it has woody part and I can carve/hollow the trunk. Its a canvas for me. If possible I could even look to splitting both the logs and growing them individually.

 

[AlainK]

First, I suggest that you indicate your location in your profile, very often it helps for people to give you advice that will take in account your climate.

Judging from the plants around the yew (maybe a fuschia on the right and a rhodo on the left), you may live in a place with temparate climate (zone 8) and the soil of your garden may be slightly acidic.

The brick wall, and the colour of the bricks makes me think you perhaps live in northern Europe (England, the north of France, Belgium, the Netherlands,...)

I'm not sure you're a native speaker of English, but maybe you live in the UK anyway, but I'd say the Netherlands.

Signed: Inspector Alain Klouzot.

About this tree:

It's very hazardous to remove so much foliage on a yew when collecting one. My friends say one shouldn't remove 1/3rd to 1/2 of the foliage for a good chance of seiing the tree survive the first winter. Meanwhile, some foliage might remain for a whole season, this doesn't mean the tree is saved. It can live on the energy stored in the tissues for several months, just like cut flowers in a vase can keep for days.

So I'm very pessimistic.

If you're new to bonsai, I'd say too big too soon. It's essential to know more about tree cultivation and the requirements of the species you want to work with before attempting what in your mind would be a "masterpiece". Learn with smaller subects, easier species first.

That's my 2€cents' worth...

PS: your message was posted this morning, Saturday at 11:31 PM

If you posted this message late this morning, how can you expect answers from a community whose members essentially live across the Atlantic: in New York, it's 6 hours earlier (11:50, time for brunch), and in LA, 9 hours earlier (8:50, shower-time) and here, it's 17:50.

 

[Nishant]

Thanks AlainK. You are quite a knowledgeable person I would say, after reading you initial assessment. BTW I live in London.

I did not cut any branches further after bringing it. I brought this stuff (from really far off ) and placed compost around the root ball, making sure the compost touches all of the roots.

It's my suspicion too that the green leaves may be living-off the sap and moisture the trunk has. They may not necessarily be being fed by roots. Should I wait until next spring? Or is it that if it were to survive, it already would have shown some revival signs by now?

 

[sorce]

Or is it that if it were to survive, it already would have shown some revival signs by now?

Yews are the worst fakers to me....

Any revival signs I have seen were just last hopes that never actually made it.

Being in that sunless rainy portion of earth....
I'd put your chances from 2 to 5%.

Best to not do anything at all....
Less you're into praying...
Know when to fold em!

Sorce

 

[AlainK]

Yews are the worst fakers to me....

Any revival signs I have seen were just last hopes that never actually made it.

Being in that sunless rainy portion of earth.... I'd put your chances from 2 to 5%.

I'm afraid I must agree...

 

[Paradox]

What are chances that the tree will re-sprout. Any further suggestions please.

The chances are very slim that this tree will survive what it has been through.

Pretty much all the foliage is gone and it looks like there is very little of the roots left and they are in a mesh bag or is that a plastic bag?

Let it dry out though and you will get a piece of wood to carve.
Though CAUTION: Yews are toxic so wear a mask and goggles if you carve.

Also keep your kids and pets away if you have any

 

[AlainK]

Though CAUTION: Yews are toxic so wear a mask and goggles if you carve.
Also keep your kids and pets away if you have any

This is much exaggerated

Yes, it's "toxic", but you would have to ingest a big quantity of fresh bays to get intoxicated, a huge quantity of fresh leaves, and the dust from dead wood would require hundreds of cubic metres to make you sick; so don't get over-paranoid

And BTW, Taxus is a source of treatment for cancer, so...

Many other plants are a hundred times more dangerous (1), keep cool...

(1) I can make a list of plants that grow (or that I grew) in my small garden, are available anywhere in garden centres and that are fatal, or hallucinogen, though I haven't tried most of them: Phallaria arundinacea (the roots), Salvia divinorum, Datura stramonium and Belladona that grow naturally here in my garden, Papaver somniferum, many mushrooms that can be collected nearby, etc., and Conium maculatum, "Poison hemlock", that Socrates took...